Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos is in “stable condition” and set to be discharged soon after being hospitalised for severe fatigue.

AFP/Manila


Flamboyant former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is in “stable condition” and set to be discharged soon after being hospitalised for severe fatigue, an aide said yesterday.
The 84-year-old, who gained worldwide fame for her massive shoe collection, was taken to hospital Sunday after feeling ill following a long road trip from her northern home town.
“There is nothing to worry about. She is in stable condition and was just asked by doctors to rest,” said Marcos’s chief of staff, Filadelfo Diaz.
“Doctors are monitoring her blood sugar levels, but other than that she is fine and will be out very soon,” he said.
He said Marcos, now a lawmaker, had insisted on a 10-hour road trip from the family’s northern stronghold of Ilocos Norte province to the capital Manila for a family gathering.
Marcos is the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose two decade rule was marked by corruption and massive rights abuses.
As first lady, Imelda Marcos, was known for her extravagance and jet-setting lifestyle as many in the Southeast Asian country toiled in poverty.
A “people power” revolt ousted the dictatorship in 1986, sending the family into exile in Hawaii where Ferdinand Marcos died three years later.
Imelda Marcos and her children were allowed to return home, where neither they nor their associates have been jailed despite a widespread belief the family plundered up to $10bn from government coffers.
The Marcos family has subsequently regained its political clout, and in mid-term elections in May, Imelda won a second straight term in the country’s lower house.
Her son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, is halfway through a six-year term as a senator and is being groomed to run for the presidency in 2016, while a daughter won as governor of the family stronghold.